Michelle Knight was the only one of Ariel Castro's three victims to appear in person. Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry's victim impact statements were read by members of their family.

The 32-year-old described how the days turned into weeks, weeks into eternity and said when she was 'dying' from the abuse she suffered, her friendship with Gina was the only thing that kept her going.

An unrepentant Ariel Castro spoke soon after, claiming he was not a monster or a violent person and that the sex with all three of his victims was consensual.

The judge told him there was no place in this world for people like him as he sentenced him to life in prison plus one thousand years.

Michelle Knight told the court today: 'While I was dying from abuse, my friendship with Gina DeJesus was the only thing that kept me alive'

Brave: Michelle Knight was the only one of the three victims to appear in court

Castro said: 'As God as my witness I never beat these women, I never tortured them. These women were not virgins when I met them, all three of them'

Attorney: Craig Weintraub holds an emergency room photo of Michele Knight that was taken on the day of her escape during Castro's sentencing on kidnapping, rape and murder in Cleveland

Michelle said: 'I will live on, you will die a little every day. I cried every night. I was so alone. I worried what would happen to me and the other girls every day'

Victim: Michelle Knight speaks during the sentencing phase for Ariel Castro, right, as she says she can forgive, but she will never forget

Emotional: Michelle pauses to wipe away tears as she reads her statements during the sentencing of her kidnapper Ariel Castro

Michelle Knight spoke of Castro's hypocrisy as he attended church every week and then came home to torture them.

'I remember all the times you came home
talking about what everyone else was doing wrong when you were doing the
same thing,' she said.

'I
cried every night. I was so alone. I worried what would happen to me and
the other girls every day.'

Speaking of her 'teammate' Gina, she said: 'She never let me fall, I never let her fall. She nursed me back to health when I was dying from her abuse. My friendship with her is the only good thing to come out of this situation.

'I will overcome all this that happened. I
will live on, you will die a little every day,' she said to him. 'I will forgive you, but I will never forget.'

'I will overcome all this that happened. I
will live on, you will die a little every day. I will forgive you, but I will never forget'

Ariel Castro would tell her during
her time in captivity that none of her family cared for her and no one
was looking for her, she also revealed.

Representatives from Gina DeJesus'
family Sylvia Colon said: 'Today is the last day we want to think or talk about this,
we will continue to live and love.

'It is not for us to judge or determine any punishment. Only a higher power can do that.'

'[Gina] thrives, she laughs, she
swims, she dances, she loves and she is loved. She will finish school,
go to college, fall in love and - if she chooses - get married and have
children.

'She lives not as a victim, but a survivor.'

She then turned to Castro and in Spanish told him: 'May God have mercy on your soul'.

Amanda Berry's sister Beth Serrano cried as she
read out the statement, telling the court her sister does not want to
talk about what happened for the sake of her child.

'Amanda is not here today. She is strong and beautiful, inside and out....she's not only my sister, she's the best friend I have, the best person I know.'

'She does not want to talk about
this day or be forced to talk about it. She would love to be the person
who decides when and how to tell her daughter.

'Her concern is that her daughter
will read about things said by people at the wrong time. Please continue
to respect her privacy, she does not want other people to talk or write
about it.

'For such a long time she had no control over her life, please let her have control over this so she can protect her daughter.

Defiant: Castro was unrepentant and tried to justify his heinous crimes the whole way through his statement today, blaming everything from his wife to his history of abuse

Mental torture: Michelle Knight revealed that Ariel Castro would tell her during her time in captivity that none of her family cared for her and no one was looking for her

Castro was unrepentant and tried to justify his heinous crimes the whole way through his rambling statement in which he depicted himself as a person who had 'everything going for him' but was plagued by an addiction to porn.

He blamed everything from his
stressful job and sexual problems to his history of abuse and his wife for why he became physically abusive, claiming: 'I am not a violent
person. I am a happy person inside. I drove a school bus, I was a musician, I have a family.'

He said people tried to paint him out to be a monster: 'I'm not a monster. I'm a normal person, I'm sick. I have an addiction, just like an
alcoholic has an addiction…I did not prey on these women. I just acted
on my sexual instincts.”

The 53-year-old unashamedly denied ever beating the girls, raping them or subjecting them to any kind of torture - despite the fact he pleaded guilty to 937 counts against him.

'As God as my witness I never beat these women, I never tortured them, he said. 'These women were not virgins when I met them, all three of them. The sex inside the house was consensual, I did not force sex on them.'

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He went on to blame the FBI for 'letting the girls down' by not questioning him and claimed the girls were happy.

Judge Michael Russo dismissed his claims they were happy and said: 'I'm not sure there's anyone in America that would agree with you.'

'There was harmony in the home...I am not a violent predator. I simply kept them there without them being able to leave,' he said. 'Amanda, she got in my vehicle without knowing who it was. I'm not trying to put the fault on her, but I'm just trying to make a point across I'm not a violent predator.'

Referring to a photo of Amanda Berry at a recent concert, Castro said: 'That right there itself proves that girl did not go through no torture. If that was true, do you think she would be out there partying already and having fun? I don’t think so.'

He said the sex that took place inside the house was consensual and sickeningly claimed the girls would even ask him for sex .

'These allegations about being forceful upon them, that is totally wrong,' he said.

The 53-year-old broke down in tears as he talked about his young daughter who was born inside the house and how he should have taken her to hospital for treatment.

He also said he used to 'practice the art of masturbation and pornography' two to three hours a day.

'Finally, I would like to apologize to
the victims to Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight. I am
truly sorry for what happened. To this day I’m trying to answer my own
questions.

'I don’t know why. A man that had everything going on for
himself - I had a job, I had a home, I had vehicles, I had my musical
talent. I had everything going on for me.'

After the judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole plus one thousand years, he told him there was no place in the world for people who enslave others.

'There is no place in this city, country or world for those who enslave or brutalize others. You preyed on three young women and subjected them to insurmountable torture.

'Though they suffered terribly, they did not give up hope. You thought you dominated them but you didn't.

'These women never gave up hope,' Russo said. 'In fact, they prevailed.'

As Castro was led away, Knight watched, smiling.

Shackled: Prosecutors are expected to detail Ariel Castro's daily assaults on the women, recounted in diaries that compared the women's experience to that of prisoners of war

Demo: Sheriff's deputies set in place a model of the house on Seymour Ave where Ariel Castro held three women for a decade

Restraints: A rusty chain can be seen over a dirty mattress on the floor of the room Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight shared

Prison: The court is being shown around the Cleveland House of Horrors through police photos

Basement: The pole the girls were all chained to and raped many times throughout their time in captivity is pictured

Document: The diary entries speak of forced sexual conduct, of being locked in a dark room, of anticipating the next session of abuse, of the dreams of someday escaping and being reunited with family, of being chained to a wall, of being held like a prisoner of war, of being treated like an animal'

Earlier, pictures of inside the Cleveland
House of Horrors where they were repeatedly sexually, physically
and emotionally abused by Ariel Castro were shown as a detective described how they were tied in chains in the basement and raped.

Castro would put a motorbike helmet on each girl and left them in the dark basement overnight, Detective Harasimchuk said.

'Each
woman told me they were repeatedly sexually, physically and emotionally
abused by Ariel Castro during the entire time they were in captivity,'
he said.

Dr Frank Ochberg described to the court the long-term impact the continuous abuse will have on the victims.

He described their 'terror-induced states of mind,
defilement, dehumanization and how they were treated like animals and
deprived of their sense of self and dignity'.

'They have life sentences. They will never be free of the damage done,' he told the court.

FBI agent Andrew Burke said he had
been familiar with DeJesus' and Amanda Berry's disappearances prior to
their discovery earlier this year.

He described the moment he saw the girls as 'surreal' as they were so pale and malnourished.

'I'll never forget it,' he said. 'It
was surreal to me. I had been involved in the missing persons
investigations for quite some time.'

He talked the court through pictures
of inside the home, describing how the back door was equipped with an
alarm, a bedspread separated the kitchen and living area, a porch swing
obstructed a flight of stairs and a curtain was put over the stairs
leading to the area where the women were held captive.

Bedroom windows were boarded shut from the inside with heavy closet
doors and doorknobs had been removed and replaced with multiple locks,
he said. The house was divided in ways to make it more secure and to
hide the existence of rooms, he said.

Pictures of dirty mattresses draped
in chains were shown as Burke explained it was from the room Gina
DeJesus and Michelle Knight lived.

Authorities also found a
'significant amount' of cash in a washing machine in the basement, the
same room as the pole the women were chained to while he raped them.

On occasion, Castro would throw the
money at the women after sexually abusing them and require they pay him
to pick up any special items for them when he left the house, the agent
said.

He would also force them to hold a gun to his head and dare them to shoot him.

The letter written by Castro was found in his home and shown in court. It read 'Confession and Details' at the top.

Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Detective Dave Jacobs said he talked with
Castro a few days after the women escaped and that Castro said, 'I knew
what I did was wrong.'

Early in the hearing, Castro tried to apologize to the victims, but
after speaking with the judge said he would do that later in the
proceeding.

Admission: Ariel Castro wrote a letter saying he was a sexual predator who needed help but did not bother to get it

Horrifying: Ariel Castro would cover his three
victims heads with a motorcycle helmet when he forced himself on them at
his home in Cleveland

Malnourished: Pictures of Gina deJesus, left and Amanda Berry, right, on the day they were rescued

Gina DeJesus: All of the victims were described as being malnourished, pale, gaunt and dehydrated

Pale: Amanda Berry being interviewed right after she escaped from captivity

A picture of a handwritten letter was
also shown, in which Castro described the horrible things he forced the
women to endure when they were in captivity while declaring: 'Bottom
line, I am a sexual predator'.

The accused arrived in court just
after 9am shackled in his orange prison jumpsuit to learn his fate and
come face-to-face with one of his victims for the first time since they
were rescued.

Michelle
Knight, who suffered for the longest and most severely, is expected to
come face-to-face with her tormenter for the first time since she was
rescued to speak about the horrific abuse.

Officer
Barbara Johnson was the first to take the stand today. As one of the
first responders to the 'house of horrors' on Seymour Avenue, Cleveland,
she described the girls as very pale, very thin and very scared when
they found them.

Dr Gerald Maloney, the emergency room doctor on duty when the three victims were taken to the hospital, described them as 'very much emotionally fragile at the time' and said Knight requested that no male physicians attend to her.

He said Michelle Knight specifically was bruised and emaciated. Every witness described the girl's as malnourished, pale and traumatized.

Dr Frank Ochberg told the court: These women have life sentences, they will never be free of the damage done

As one of the first responders to the 'house of horrors' on Seymour Avenue, Cleveland, Officer Barbara Johnson described the girls as very pale, very thin and very scared when they found them

Physician: Dr Maloney said that all three women were emotionally distraught and said they'd been sexually assaulted and held against their will in the house

Investigation: Detective Harasimchuk told the court how Castro abducted each of the three women and that they were 'sexually, emotionally and mentally abused the entire time they were in captivity'

Hearing: Prosecutors detailed Ariel Castro's daily assaults on the women, recounted in diaries that compared the women's experience to that of prisoners of war

Evidence: Ariel Castro, 53, sits between his attorneys Jaye Schlachet, right, and Craig Weintraub, left, in the courtroom with a model of Castro's home in Cleveland, Ohio

Detective Harasimchuk also told the court all three girls were vaginally, orally and anally raped throughout their time in captivity.

He said all three women were abducted after Castro offered them a ride and that each was chained in his basement and sexually assaulted within a few hours of being kidnapped.

With the possibility of the death
penalty for a forced miscarriage taken off the table, Castro stands to
get life in prison plus 1,000 years today.

Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty
said in a sentencing memorandum filed on Wednesday that Castro, who
chained his captives and fed them only one meal a day, 'admits his
disgusting and inhuman conduct' but 'remains remorseless for his
actions'.

The memorandum says many of the
specific charges in Castro's indictment reflect conduct documented by
one of the women in her diary.

'The entries speak of forced sexual
conduct, of being locked in a dark room, of anticipating the next
session of abuse, of the dreams of someday escaping and being reunited
with family, of being chained to a wall, of being held like a prisoner
of war ... of being treated like an animal,' it says.

Diaries kept by Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, and Gina de Jesus while held captive for a decade in an Ohio home have helped US prosecutors describe their suffering

FULL HORRORS OF CASTRO HOUSE REVEALED IN DOCUMENT

Michelle Knight was forced to abort an apparent pregnancy by consuming only tea and doing strenuous exercise.

She then had to deliver Amanda Berry's child herself and resuscitate the baby after her birth, while Castro threatened to kill her if she failed.

The three women were not allowed out of their bedroom to use the bathroom, and had to resort to plastic toilets which were rarely emptied.

Castro deliberately made the attic unbearably hot and the basement freezing cold so he could punish his prisoners if he thought they were misbehaving.

At one point, he locked the girls in a vehicle in his garage to hide them from a friend who was visiting for three days.

In a bid to frighten the women into obeying him, he told them he was 'hunting for replacements' and claimed he had previously captured other victims.

In the court filing, McGinty offered
new details of Castro's treatment of the women, who he said were kept
'in a state of powerlessness' through physical, sexual and psychological
violence.

'He made them believe that their
physical survival depended on him, and he threatened to end their lives
if they did not comply with his every demand,' McGinty said.

Castro lured one of the women into
his Cleveland home with the promise of a puppy for her son and tricked
another by saying she could see his daughter, McGinty said.

He chained his captives by their
ankles, fed them only one meal a day and provided plastic toilets in
their bedrooms that were infrequently emptied, the filing said.

He menaced them with a gun,
threatened them with tales of other captives, some of whom hadn't made
it home, and at one point locked all of them in a vehicle in his garage
for three days while he had a visitor.

Castro claimed he didn't have an exit
strategy from his complicated double life and finally gave the women a
chance to escape by leaving a door unlocked, the court filing said.

The women, each kidnapped separately
when they accepted a ride from Castro on Cleveland's blue-collar west
side, quickly escaped after Amanda Berry kicked out the door panel on
May 6 and Castro was arrested within hours.

The women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years.

Other horrific details of the women's
ordeal had already emerged, including tales of being chained to poles
in the basement or a bedroom heater or inside a van, with one woman
forced to wear a motorcycle helmet while chained in the basement and,
after she tried to escape, having a vacuum cord wrapped around her neck.

Castro repeatedly starved and beat one of the victims each time she was pregnant, forcing her to miscarry five times.

He forced the same woman on threat of
death to safely deliver the child he fathered with another victim on
Christmas Day 2006. The same day, prosecutors say, Castro raped the
woman who helped deliver his daughter.

Berry, 27, made a surprise onstage
appearance at a rap concert last weekend, and a second victim, Gina
DeJesus, 23, made a few televised comments as a privacy fence was being
erected around her house.

The third victim, Michelle Knight,
32, appeared with Berry and DeJesus in a video in early July thanking
the community for its support.

It also includes an evaluation by a clinical professor of psychiatry at Michigan State Universitywho describes the emotional toll that the ten years of captivity had on the women.

‘He
appeared to be evolving in an ever more dangerous direction, capturing
younger and younger women, telling his captives he was hunting for
replacements,’ wrote Frank Ochberg, who also testified in court.

'These and other threats had the effect of terrifying the victims into subservience,’ Dr Ochberg explained.

He
added: 'Castro hurt each of the three young women that he captured and
confined in ways that create lasting wounds. He terrified them.

'The
body responds to terror long afterward with uncontrollable visions,
smells, sounds and sensations. These are called trauma memories and they
are unlike ordinary memory. They come at night in the form of
nightmares.'

In his
evaluation, Dr Ochberg wrote that Knight - who was kidnapped first after
Castro promised to give her a puppy for her son - suffered 'the longest
and most severely.'

Castro
has admitted that on one occasion Knight told him she may be pregnant
and he forced a termination by putting her on a tea-only diet for
several days, made her perform 'knee bends' and jumping jacks.

In the memorandum Michelle Knight - who was kidnapped first - is described as suffering 'the longest and most severely'

Amanda Berry, left, made a surprise onstage appearance at a rap concert last weekend, and Gina DeJesus, right, made a few televised comments as a privacy fence was erected around her house

However, when Berry fell pregnant,
Knight helped save the baby's life as Castro threatened to kill her if
the child did not survive.

'It
was Michelle who served as doctor, nurse, midwife and pediatrician
during the birth. She breathed life into that infant when she wasn't
breathing,' wrote Dr Ochberg.

'At
other times, she interceded when Castro sought to abuse Gina,
interposing herself and absorbing physical and sexual trauma. But each
survivor had a will to prevail and used that will to live through the
ordeal.'

The memorandum
also describes how Castro controlled the movements of the women,
keeping them in locked rooms and using physical restraints.

'There is only one bathroom in the
house, on the first floor. The Defendant would not allow the victims
downstairs to use the bathroom. They only had access to plastic toilets
in the bedrooms. They were emptied infrequently.'

The
document adds: 'He controlled the temperature and the inflow of food
and drink. He used the cold of the basement and the heat of the attic as
punishment techniques.'

Berry's diary was addressed to her
mother, and then after her mom died, she 'wrote to her mother in heaven,
seeking to soothe her' and praying for deliverance and the health of
her daughter who Castro fathered.

The diaries show how 'the victims had to watch the rest of the world turn as they were held in captivity'.

'Holidays, world events, and even the passing of Ms Berry's mother were observed by them, removed from the outside world.'

The purpose of the memorandum is to
help establish a record that will serve as justification for Castro's
sentence should it come under review in the future.

Castro
pleaded guilty last week to 937 counts, including murder and
kidnapping, in a deal that dropped a possible death penalty in exchange
for life in prison plus 1,000 years.